Greco Remodelers, Manassas, Va., did not have a production manager to check on the status of jobs, so they decided to create a weekly job control report. Their average job is a two-week bath or a four-week kitchen. "We're dealing with smaller periods of time. If something goes awry in a small period of time, it can blow the whole job. If we see a problem, we can be more proactive to rectify it and get the job back on track," Annette Greco says.
The report includes the customer name, job number, start date, estimated hours, actual hours, and percent of job completed as estimated by the field personnel. Greco multiplies estimate hours by the percent complete number to find out what the hours should be and compares that to the actual hours.
The variance is normally under 10%. If it is over 10%, Greco immediately checks on the job. "We may find a person who is not cutting it -- all their jobs are over. We've had to get rid of a few and had talks with a few," she says. The report also helps the field crew learn to estimate percent complete on jobs.